angular dissent
by prouvaires
Summary: -this isn't what his father died fighting for.- TeddyLily


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter, I just screw around with the characters.

**Rating: **T

**Pairing: **TeddyLily

**A/N: **Response to the challenge in the HPCC forum: _"Write a Harry Potter-related story about discrimination within the wizarding world."_

---

She's long since accepted that there will always be things that aren't explained to her, like why Rose can't date Scorpius Malfoy and why she mustn't talk to Uncle George about Fred, not ever (as far as she can see maybe he'd like to talk about his twin sometimes), and why it's not a good idea to mention Lavender Brown in front of Auntie Hermione and Uncle Ron.

Lily likes Lavender. She's pretty and good and brave and she wears her scars like mummy wears jewellery. Lily's a little in awe of her because daddy hides his scar under his fringe and Uncle George wears hats to cover up his missing ear and Uncle Percy always wears high-collared shirts to hide the wound that runs from his collarbone to his ribs but Lavender is _proud _of the way she is. She dresses to accentuate her scars, not to hide them.

"That poor girl," Grandma Weasley murmurs at a huge get-together, shaking her head in sorrow as Lavender spins laughingly in Charlie's arms, the black backless dress displaying the maze of red and purple lines that mar her white skin.

Lily doesn't understand that. She's envious of Lavender – she wears her ugliness on her skin where everyone can see it and that's good because everybody's a little bit ugly and most of the time you never know in what way. Lavender glides over to them and bends over Lily, a little flushed with champagne and the dancing and stars in her eyes brighter than diamonds as she studies the little Potter girl.

"You're Lily?" she asks, and Lily nods, slightly taken aback at actually _talking _to the woman she's admired for so long. "Your hair is beautiful," Lavender tells her, and Lily glows with pride.

"Thank you," she almost-whispers, trembling with excitement. "So is your back."

Lavender gives her a narrow-eyed stare, trying to decide what game Lily is playing.

"I wish I was like you," Lily tells her breathlessly, her hand reaching out to tuck in to Lavender's. "You're so pretty and brave."

Lavender closes her hand around the six-year-old's and smiles. "Not many people tell me that."

Lily gazes up as the woman leads her across the room, helping her get herself a glass of apple juice.

"Why do you call me pretty?" Lavender asks, taking a seat at one of the beribboned tables. Lily clambers up into the seat next to her, and daringly reaches out to trace one of the scars on Lavender's hand.

"Teddy loves his father, even though he never knew him. And I knew why when I met you."

"Why?" Lavender asks, leaning in closer to the little girl. Lily gazes at her solemnly, green eyes wide and sincere in her pale face.

"Because you're proud of who you are, like Remus was," she announces, "and I wish I was like you because sometimes I hate being me."

Lavender gives her a confused glance.

"I'm not _me_," Lily says as though that explains everything. "I'm _Harry Potter's daughter _and no-one looks at me like I'm a person all by myself."

Lavender unthinkingly pulls the little girl into a hug.

"Everyone has labels, Lily – it's just up to you whether you try to peel them off."

"Like you did?" Lily asks ingenuously, her voice muffled where it's pressed into Lavender's shoulder.

"Just like I did," Lavender replies, drawing back and chucking the little girl under the chin before standing gracefully up and accepting a dance with Bill Weasley.

Teddy marches up to Lily, his hair a bright gold for the occasion. "Your dad is looking for you," he tells her. She grins and reaches her arms up to him, giving him her best puppy-dog eyes.

With a weary sigh, he picks her up and slings her onto his back.

"I'm seventeen," he mutters, more to himself than to her. "I shouldn't be giving piggy-back rides to six-year-olds."

Lily just kicks her heels at his thighs to make him go faster.

"Your daughter is more demanding than a hungry Hungarian Horntail," Teddy informs Harry as he deposits Lily in front of him.

"Thanks, Ted," Harry laughs, clapping the young man on the shoulder before leaning forward and whispering something about dancing with Victoire in his ear. Teddy awards his godfather a brief glare before bending down to kiss Lily on the cheek.

"Save me a dance, okay?" he makes her promise, and she laughs and nods.

"Now, Lils," Harry says, sitting down in a chair and letting her clamber up into his lap. "I saw you with Lavender – what were you talking about?"

Lily wraps her arms around his neck and smiles. "Scars and labels," she replies, as though it should be obvious, and then wriggles out of his arms before he can react and pushes her way across the dancefloor to find Teddy. Harry watches in embarrassment as Lily somehow edges Victoire out and puts her hands up to Teddy.

Harry watches as Teddy carefully takes her hands and lets her step onto his (especially polished and brand new) shoes with her white sandals, moving around gently as she laughs with delight. Not for the first time, Harry wishes Remus was around to see how wonderful his son is with Lily.

"I must apologise for my daughter," Harry says as Victoire sashays towards him, her hips undulating in the long violet dress. "She has a total lack of manners I can only assume were inherited from Ron."

Victoire laughs and picks her champagne glass off the table from behind Harry. "I don't mind. She adores Teddy, it's so cute."

Harry turns his gaze back to his daughter and godson, watching as Lily gets bored of dancing and steals Teddy's wand out of his pocket before racing off across the room.

"Yeah," Harry says absently as Teddy gives chase, knocking three wine glasses off a table, "so cute."

--

Lily gets older and as the boats row herself, Hugo and the rest of their year across the lake, she makes a decision. She's been trying to find ways of shedding her labels, like Lavender said, since she was six and she thinks maybe she's found the perfect way.

She trembles with anticipation in the line for Sorting, barely changed from the awe-struck six-year-old but for a larger vocabulary and the ability to cause a much wider variety of trouble.

"Potter, Lily!" the black-haired teacher holding the parchment calls, and a cheer arises from the Gryffindor table. She can see James and Al bouncing up and down in their seats with excitement, and other members of her huge family around them, faces bursting with happiness.

_Another face to add to the Weasley mass, _she thinks to herself, pulling herself up onto the stool before her world goes black.

_Ah, another Potter_, a small voice announces in her ear. She can't restrain herself from thinking _well, duh. _

_You are the most like your father to be presented to me, _the hat tells her, and she can't stop herself from smiling with pride. _I once told him that he would have done well in Slytherin, but he asked me not to place him there. And since then every member of the Potter family has asked me to place them in Gryffindor. But you … there is something you want to ask me, is there not?_

She starts shaking with something entirely different from anticipation. _I want to be put somewhere different, _she informs the hat firmly, the silence stretching out interminably before as the Gryffindor table buzzes with confusion at what's taking so long.

_You are cunning, Lily Potter. I have no qualms about placing you in "_SLYTHERIN_"!_

The Hall falls absolutely silent. Not a sound comes out of any mouths as Lily returns the hat to the stool and bounds down, heading down towards the Slytherin table with guilt, fear and excitement roiling around in her stomach.

"No way!" a voice suddenly shouts from her right, and she turns to find the large majority of her family on their feet, James at the front. "There's been a mistake."

Roxanne nods her agreement, and so do several others including Al, Molly, Fred and Lucy.

Lily ignores them and continues down the Slytherin table, sliding into place beside a boy she sort of recognises from the boat ride over and a girl she saw on the train. Her face burns as her family's protests grow more and more raucous until McGonagall threatens them all with detention for a month unless they sit down.

Lily cranes her neck around and mouths "idiot" at James before returning her attention to the Sorting.

They corner her as she leaves the Great Hall, Hugo sorted undeniably into Gryffindor, and no matter how hard she tries to push past them and get back to the prefect leading them to the Slytherin common room they keep her pinned back, ignoring the threats from the Slytherins.

"It's okay, Lils," Al says gently. "We'll get you resorted into Gryffindor."

"I don't _want _to be in Gryffindor," she replies, glaring at them all. "I don't want to be like everybody else. This is my only chance to be myself."

They don't know what to reply to that, so she takes advantage of their confusion and slips back to join the Slytherin first years, mumbling an apology and very aware of the eyes of her family on her back as she walks measuredly behind the prefect.

--

She goes home at Christmas to be faced with sympathetic faces and pats on the shoulder and it sort of makes her want to scream.

She escapes out into the snow-covered garden and sinks down against the shed where the snow isn't piled up high and puts her face into her hands and gulps back the tears that she absolutely _won't _cry.

"Lils?" a voice says quietly, and she can feel Teddy's warmth as he sits down next to her. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm not crying," she replies, and as he tucks her into his arms he studies her determined face and scowling eyes and clenched fists and realises that not crying is most definitely doing something.

"I got turned down for another job last week," he informs her as he twists his fingers in the ends of her hair, distracting her instantly from her own upset. "They said they didn't want the son of a werewolf working for them."

Lily has moved instantly from sadness to fury, and a sudden wind whips her hair up as her green eyes flash dangerously.

"That's _stupid_," she growls. "What difference does it make?"

"That's just the way it is," he tells her, pulling her closer into him as she starts shivering. "There's no point getting worked up over it."

"I'm going to make them change it," she tells him, and as he watches the steel harden in her eyes he suddenly feels scared for the people on the other end of her temper. "You shouldn't be treated like that."

He takes her small, cold hands in his and as their gazes connect he smiles, his eyes her favourite hazel shade.

"Maybe we'll change it one day," he suggests, and she thinks hard for a minute.

"No. Let's change it today."

He laughs for her determination. "Lils, you're eleven and it's five days before Christmas. What could we possibly do?"

She sneaks his wand out of his pocket (she's got it down to a fine art) and presses it into his hand, tucking her hand into his other one.

"Apparate us to the Ministry," she tells him firmly, and she's got that wicked sparkle in her eye that he knows means it would be a bad idea to mess with her so he waves his wand and feels his way into the blackness and they appear outside the phone box that will take them down to the Ministry.

She rides in the lift in stony silence, her eyes a bright, shining emerald against her pale skin and flyaway red hair.

"What are you planning?" Teddy asks uncomfortably, staring around him as they step out into the foyer. A statue of Harry, Ron and Hermione stands in the centre of the massive space, and Lily snorts at it briefly before marching past.

"I'm going to find the Minister for Magic," she informs him, and he thinks about stopping her but, really, it's not like the Minister would hurt an eleven-year-old girl. Or rather, that an eleven-year-old girl could hurt the Minister. But Lily's not an ordinary eleven-year-old girl, and Teddy is really hoping the Minister has good reflexes in case of sudden hexes.

"Wait here," she tells him as they reach the imposing oak door, and then knocks and slips inside before he can react, closing the door in his face.

Inside the room, the man behind the desk glances up wearily and his face transforms.

"Lily Potter?" he asks incredulously. "Is your father here?"

She rolls her eyes. "Contrary to popular belief, I am actually capable of doing things without my father holding my hand at every turn."

Teddy finally gets the door open behind her and bursts in, startling the Minister. Lily turns to him with a huff of annoyance.

"Ted, I told you to wait outside."

"You're eleven, Lils. You shouldn't even be here."

The Minister nods in agreement, and then looks slightly surprised as Lily marches round the desk to stand next to him and leans into his personal space, glaring at him furiously.

"You're horrible," she tells him, and Teddy sighs as he sees his life going right down the drain and sinks into a chair. "You say you're working for equality and to make the world a better place but you don't mean _any _of it. You stick labels on people and you say they're worse just because they're different and it doesn't matter that they're people too because so long as you tell everyone that they're animals you can tax them harder and not have to worry about changing the way things are, even though it's _wrong_."

"Now listen here, young lady," the Minister says, rising to his feet and towering over the girl, "You don't know anything about politics. Your father's past has obviously gone to your head. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Lavender Brown," Lily says simply, hopping up onto the desk and swinging her legs as the Minister sinks slowly back down into his chair disbelievingly.

"What do you mean?"

"She _fought _for you," Lily hisses, and it's only in this moment that Teddy realises how absolutely furious she is. "She nearly _died _for you and your parents and my family and everyone in the world and you don't even _care. _You were grateful for about five minutes and then you saw her scars and you told her she was an animal now and that she wasn't a person, not at all, and it doesn't matter that she makes a really pretty werewolf and that she's never hurt anyone, ever, and that it's not like she really had a choice!"

The Minister just stares, utterly speechless, as Lily jumps down from the desk and starts pacing up and down his expensive blue shag-pile carpet. He's been told off and harangued and yelled at by many, many people – but never by an eleven-year-old girl.

"And all those girls that Greyback hurt – they were just like me! They had the world and they were prepared to give it all away to make everything better for me and my cousins and all our friends and when they got hurt fighting for _us _you just threw them into the gutter."

She stops pacing, and her gaze flashes between Teddy and the Minister, and it's hard to tell who looks more astonished. "I'm ashamed to be part of a world that does that to people," she tells him in a quiet voice. "At least Voldemort was open about what he was doing. He never pretended to be doing the right thing or tried to hide what he was really doing. You're worse than Voldemort," she accuses the Minister, and the shock is really clear on his face as he hears this, from _Harry Potter's daughter _of all people, "and I think it's about time you started doing something about it."

"That's enough, Lily," Teddy announces, recovering his senses and moving towards her, wrapping his arm around her waist and trying to pull her away.

"My friend Teddy," Lily says, turning back around to the Minister, "he lost his mum and his dad because they were fighting for us and now they won't give him a job because his dad was a werewolf. But he still didn't want me to come talk to you. He said there was no point. And I thought that was stupid because I thought the Ministry had to listen to what the people said and then they would do stuff. But you're not going to do anything, are you? You're going to just sit down and forget all this and go back to your little bubble where the only people with feelings are the perfect ones – and you don't realise that nobody's perfect."

The door smashes open behind them and Lily turns, gulping back tears that have risen from God knows where to find her father.

"Lily Luna Potter, you are in an unbelievable amount of trouble," he tells her, his eyes (her eyes) flashing dangerously behind his glasses. Seeing him angry just pushes her over the edge and she bursts into tears as she runs to put her arms around his waist.

"They don't care," she sobs bitterly as he crouches down and encircles her into his arms, trying to soothe her. "They don't care about Lavender and Teddy and I hate them."

"Ted, will you take her home for me? I think I need a word with the Minister here."

Teddy lifts Lily easily up into his arms, his heart breaking just a little bit for her because this is her first experience that the world just isn't fair – being the only daughter of Harry Potter means things usually go her way.

She puts her arms around his neck and buries her face in his neck and he breathes in that honey-sunshine-snow scent that's so entirely her and as he carries her through the foyer and back into the lift he can't help the lump in his throat or the tears that fill his eyes because _this _isn't what his father died fighting for.

They arrive back at the Burrow, the whole family waiting tensely for Harry and Teddy and Lily.

"Oh, baby," Ginny says, taking Lily off Teddy and settling down onto a sofa as the rest of the family crowds round.

"Piss off, James," Lily mumbles as James almost sits on her feet in his eagerness to find out what happened.

"Language," Ginny reprimands her automatically, stroking her hair off her face.

"What happened, Ted?" Al asks quietly, and Teddy moves into the kitchen. Al, James, Rose and Hugo follow him. The rest of the family will be arriving the following morning to prepare for Christmas, and the Burrow feels almost empty with only twelve people in it.

"I think Lily just told off the Minister for Magic," Teddy says disbelievingly, collapsing into a chair. James laughs and high-fives Rose.

"See, I told you going into Slytherin would be good for her," Al tells him pointedly, and James shrugs.

"I guess you were right. Seems she's not turned all evil after all."

"She told the Minister he was worse than Voldemort," Teddy announces weakly, and all of them burst out laughing.

"That's our Lily," Hugo says proudly, and Teddy grins as they rush back into the sitting room and dog-pile a happier-looking Lily, who's ensconced on the couch with a big bowl of ice-cream.

Harry walks in as the children chatter away, pretty much unnoticed.

"I'm sorry," Teddy begins, but Harry cuts him off with a wave of his hand.

"I've been meaning to have that particular chat with the Minister for a _long _time," Harry says ominously, and as he turns to regard his daughter, now laughing at a joke James is telling, Teddy sees Lily in his expression more than ever. "It's time things changed."

On Christmas Day, they turn on the wireless to discover that the Ministry has just passed a new law banning discrimination against werewolves and making a free supply of Wolfsbane Potion available in every pharmacy.

"What made you decide to make such a radical amendment to the old law, Minister?" the female reporter asks brightly as the extended Weasley and Potter family gather around the radio.

"We had a somewhat unexpected visitor who made us re-think a lot of things," the Minister's cool voice drifts through the speakers. "She should be very proud of what she's accomplished today."

All the children in the room immediately enclose Lily in a huge group hug, squishing her as she laughs and protests. Teddy hangs around on the edges, half-wishing he were still young enough to join in the hug.

She somehow fights her way out of the scrimmage and immediately wraps her arms around his neck.

"We changed the world, Ted," she tells him happily. "We did it for you and for your dad."

"He'd be so proud of you," Teddy says, unable to keep the tears from choking his voice.

"Yes, he would," a new voice says from behind them, and Lily whirls to find herself facing Lavender Brown, wearing stars in her eyes that draw all of Lily's attention away from the scars she wears on her skin. "You're an amazing girl, Lily," Lavender announces, and Lily smiles nervously before shyly reaching up and hugging Lavender.

"Thank you," she replies, and Lavender smiles and bends down to whisper in her ear.

"You've got an amazing friend there," she murmurs, glancing at Teddy. Lily just smiles.

"I know."

Lavender backs off and watches as Lily bounds up to Teddy, grabbing his hand and laughing as he whisks her off the ground and spins her round a couple of times before setting her down and drawing her into a hug. Lavender watches the love in his eyes as he regards the little red-headed girl and thinks that there can be nothing to stop them, not now. They wear constellations for each other, and nothing can rip them down.

---

**A/N: **Well I rewrote this four times, and I'm still not happy. But my deadline's coming up so I'm publishing it anyway – forgive me if you think it sucked!

Please don't favourite without reviewing, thank you!


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